Global management students visit Missouri Supreme Court

Truman School students in the global management course experienced state government up close in a class trip to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Professor Mary Stegmaier said the trip correlated with what the students were studying in class.

“The purpose is for them to experience how government and the American process works,” Stegmaier said.

Students in the global management course are mid-career students that have experience working in the Korean government.

Global management student Sook Shim said she enjoyed the trip and the being able to see the process.

“It was the first experience for me to see the court process,” Shim said. “U.S. and Korean courts are quite different.”

Stegmaier said the students were able to sit in on the court cases to see how the process works. She said it was interested to observe the Supreme Court and to talk to the students after to see what questions they had.

“Some students were surprised about how transparent it was, that we were able to sit in and observe the process,” Stegmaier said. “This type of trip makes it easier for them to understand once they have observed it.”

Shim said she enjoyed the trip and thought that seeing the court process was helpful to understand the material.

“The field trip was helpful,” she said. “It was what we were learning about and it helped me understand the textbook.”

Stegmaier said other students were also invited to attend and had six students come along who are not in the global management class.

“This is the first time we sent an announcement to invite other students,” Stegmaier said. “It was a great way for the students to interact, especially for the international students to get the perspective from the American students.”

Truman School student Christal Hamilton said she enjoyed the trip and thought it was a good way to learn about the system.

“We were able to sit it on a few hearings and we were given a tour and had and explanation of the system and what kind of cases they hear,” Hamilton said. “I learned that sometimes the law isn’t very easy to interpret.”

Stegmaier said this type of learning is something she would like to continue and thinks it is helpful to the students.

“Visiting the Missouri Supreme Court was a really great experience for them,” she said. “When they are reading about it at the same time that they visit, it helps reinforce what they are learning and helps bring it to life in a real way.”

Students were able to ask questions about the process, given a tour, met with representatives from the Attorney General’s Office and learned about the responsibilities of the offices. The global management class also attended the special session of the Missouri General Assembly in October and will attend a Columbia City Council meeting.